NEW DELHI, Nov 13 — There is a possibility that the IAF helicopter, which crashed near Indo-Pak border near the Rann of Kutch killing seven persons, was shot down, Air Force Chief Air Marshal A.Y. Tipnis said here tonight.

“It is a possibility. But it is premature to say so at this moment. That’s one of the things we will investigate,” he told a TV channel when asked whether the MI-8 copter was shot down.

The Air Chief, who visited the site of the crash, said on his return that the three BSF personnel who survived the crash and whom he met at Lakhpat told him that they saw three fishing boats in the area.

He said the BSF personnel told him that there were no Indian boats operating in that area.

Asked whether there had been engine failure led to the crash, Air Marshal Tipnis said “No, certainly, I don’t think it has been a spontaneous engine failure because the co-pilot certainly did not report that there was anything wrong with the aircraft.”

“He had a blackout immediately. They were flying about 50 metres over these boats and the next thing he remembered was that he woke up just outside the copter,” the Air Chief said.

Air Marshal Tipnis said the report of the preliminary investigation was expected by tomorrow by when “we can come to some conclusion,” an IAF spokesman said.

The spokesman said the survivors told Air Marshal Tipnis that the BSF DIG, who was killed in the crash, wanted to have a closer look at the fishing boats and the helicopter took a couple of rounds over them.

The co-pilot Flying Officer Manish Kumar, one of the two IAF crew to survive the crash, told the Air Force chief that there was apparently nothing wrong with the helicopter till that point, the spokesman said.

Eight BSF officials, including a DIG and four IAF crew members, were on board the helicopter, which was on a routine mission at least 10 km within the Indian side of the border, and had crashed about 90 km from the Naliya Air Force station in Gujarat.

A Defence Ministry release said the helicopter took off from Koteshwar in Kutch at 12.17 pm yesterday on a routine mission. The helicopter flew over the BSF post at Lakhpat at 12.45 pm and since then there was no contact with it.